Coronavirus: are Wills important?
Life can take unexpected turns as the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic painfully demonstrates. This challenging and momentous event has thrust change upon us including to our everyday routines, our work and our play.
It has also given many people pause for thought about their own affairs and what they have been meaning to do to get their personal arrangements in shape to be prepared should the worst occur.
An up-to-date professionally prepared Will is one such personal arrangement that is essential.
Does the pandemic make getting a Will more urgent?
This crisis may lead to people who suffer the worst complications of the Covid-19, losing the opportunity – due to isolation or hospitalisation – to communicate with even their families, let alone lawyers.
A will allows you to select who will benefit from the assets accumulated from your life’s hard work. It also specifies who will administer your estate (the executor).
Dying without a will can cause major legal and financial problems for your family. The legal steps needed – and the delay incurred – just to be able to access bank accounts are greater than would otherwise be the case. Even then, in the absence of a will, your estate will be distributed according to the “rules of intestacy” rather than how you would prefer. Your estate may also be vulnerable to claims from “outsiders” that could have been prevented with carefully drafted testamentary arrangements.
The time to act is now.